[strictfp]

Well, you might disagree with me, but I agree with you!

Jokes aside, I think that you can light a fire of self-worth given enough positive reinforcement. But there is always a limit on how long you can keep this fire burning.

Let's say you are really comfortable with yourself where you are, and suddenly move to a country with essentially diametrically opposed values and norms. Everything you have been taught is turned on its head.

How long do you stay confident?

This is just a thought experiment, but I think it highlights the volatility of self-worth.

[crawfordcomeaux]

I can answer this from experience because I feel like I'm living this.

I've been developing a system around a theoretical model of how the mind/body/brain work together. I've been experimenting on myself using it with weird results. I've been hypothesizing things I didn't believe were possible until 8 months ago & before then I would've labeled people suggesting things I believe now to be bigots. One of these things is that everyone can learn to be gender fluid to varying degrees.

As I started exploring concepts related to gender for the sake of designing experiments in changing my gender identity, I accidentally created a second seemingly sentient conscious identity in my head of the opposite gender. When she emerged, we switched spots & I became the voice in the head. In an instant, I went from being a straight white cis-gender male to...? I still don't know how to classify this experience...it could simply be an advanced form of pretending. In Buddhism, it's called deity visualization & the modern westernized flavor of the same thing is called tulpamancy. I didn't know any of that when it happened, though.

In that moment, I joined at least one minority class of people: either "people who hear voices in their heads" and/or "people who are gender fluid."

And it's haaaaard to stay confident about what I'm doing because some people find it really hard to hear me talk about this stuff. Friends have called me a bigot. I was kicked out of a party at someone's home. I've been told by one neuroscience my ideas are meaningless because I don't have a degree & couldn't possibly know what I'm talking about, completely denying my experiences.

I guess the question I have for you is what else would you say I need to go through before my confidence breaks?

This is a legitimate question. I want to try to break my confidence & I'm interested in realistic ways to go about testing it.

[strictfp]

Well, my take on this is that you can't fight the system. But you can change system.

There are numerous books on change management in business, and most of them conclude that it's a lot easier to start a new company than to change an existing company culture. That is, unless the change is trivial (by various definitions of trivial).

Likewise I think you are better of finding more free minded people. You can burn yourself out trying to convince a single conservative person. And the alternative is that you find peers where you can share your experiences freely and spend you energy on your own voyage, not on the acceptance of it by your dissaproving surroundings.

By this I don't mean that you have to stop seeing these sceptics, just that you choose what you tell them. You have to adapt to your surroundings.

Of course it sucks to realize that you cannot truly be yourself in a certain group, but I think that is a sad truth that lurks in our society today. There is a reason why so many alternative thinkers flock to big cities.

I definitely don't believe that you are the only one feeling like this. Most likely there are many in your surroundings. But people put their needs aside to conform to the social group, and that is what they expect from you too to stay a member. If you don't want to live that life, you have to break free.

I wish you the best of luck!

[crawfordcomeaux]

Thanks for getting the Queen song "I've got to bream free" playing in my head.

I didn't mean to make it sound like I'm actively suffering, but that I've recently experienced a complete 180 in a lot of my views & world. I value the experiences I cited and am not looking to avoid having them because putting energy toward appeals would be a recipe for burnout. The point I'm trying to make is I don't need their acceptance. I don't have to wear my status on my sleeve and can still bring it up when it's relevant. I'm most certainly not going to hide a key part of myself because of other's reactions. I actively challenge people's minds about what theirs is capable of simply through sharing my experiences and who I am. They can expect conformity all they want and they'll likely burn out before I do because denial takes more energy/effort than acceptance. Also, denial sticks in the mind, while acceptance allows you to move forward.

I really am interested in any ideas you have on social experiments I can conduct to prove/disprove your perspectives in this thread. Whatcha got?